Marriott Conshohocken West - food not pregnant lady friendly

No, I'm not the pregnant lady! It's my friend A. We had another quarterly meeting this week at the Marriott in Conshy. They feed us of course, how else would they get us to attend? This week's lunch fare was much more casual than meetings past. We had some salad and pasta salad. Two cold sandwich selections - turkey and roast beef.


There were two "hot" sandwich selections - grilled ham and cheese and bruschetta. They also had some tomato bisque with crab. Except it wasn't bisque since it wasn't creamy. And there was no crab. So it was really chunky tomato soup. However, there was a crab dip that did have nice huge chunks of crab. People ate it up like soup.

For dessert they had little mini key lime pies. These were tasty little suckers. They weren't too tart either. They had a nice mild flavor. There was vanilla mousse with oreo crumbles. It was good but not very vanilla-y. I still liked it. There were cookies too.

Now the thing that sucked is that apparently, when you're pregnant, you can't eat deli meat. So A couldn't eat very much of the lunch this day. All of the sandwiches had deli meat and she doesn't like bruschetta. So she had to stick with salad and the crab dip. We missed the awesome mashed potatoes from last time. Sigh.

Greasy mall food and Improvised dinners

Yes folks, once in my life, oh, when I was a young teenager, I loved hanging out at malls. After all, what girl didn't? Nowadays, not so much. But I had to go to one the other day, and since I was starving, had to eat. The "japanese" place in the food court had some scary japanese and chinese looking selections. I decided to go with chicken udon. It looked like a safe choice.



I love udon in general, but it can be very plain depending on where you get it. After all, it's just thick noodles in a broth with some veggies and protein thrown in. This particular one was so much more than that! Instead of plain chicken, they threw in some chopped teriyaki chicken. It was made with chicken thighs so it was wonderfully tender. It also came with some steamed veggies. Because of the teriyaki flavoring from the chicken, the broth was jazzed up with this extra flavor. And man, was it filling! I could hardly stop eating it because it was so good. So what if it's from a crappy mall food court place? It was still darn good. I wouldn't be so sure about their other stir fried dishes, but this udon was great.


We took a grocery trip to hong kong supermarket on washington ave and found some adorable long and skinny eggplant. When we got home, Z whipped up some steak tips with eggplant, red onions, and shallots, using a baja chipotle marinade. I don't know how people just make up stuff. I can't ever make up dishes on the go. I can only do recipes. He does this making up his own dishes stuff all the time! And it was great. I did cut up and steam some red potatoes. Haha. Look at me! I'm a chef! I did take pictures and eat the meal very well!

Shake your Bon Bon

Bon Bon Artisan Gelato is a new gelato place that opened up in old city. It's quite adorable, and very european cafe looking. Maybe it's because I'm addicted to Capogiro, but this place does not compare. Capogiro has maybe 30 flavors every day, Bon Bon has maybe half of that? They certainly are cheaper, $3 for a small compared to Capogiro's $5. They do have more of a selection as far as non-gelato is concerned. They seem to have more dessert selections.

Don't get me wrong, their gelato is good! I just wasn't blown away. Z got chocolate, and I went with half pineapple half wild berries. I think it was the texture that did it for me. It wasn't nearly as smooth and creamy as Capogiro. There seemed to be some icy chunks in the pineapple one. And no, it wasn't pineapple chunks, it was definitely chunks in the sorbetto/gelato itself. So it was a bit disappointing. But the serving size was good and the service was also nice and friendly. Since Capogiro isn't in old city, I would definitely go here again. But if Bon Bon and Capogiro were next to each other, sorry folks, Capogiro's got my vote!

Bon Bon Artisan Gelato

229 Market Street

(215) 925-2122

Jose's! Ole!

I'd been hearing about this mexican place on buttonwood for awhile now. Let's go to buttonwood, let's go to buttonwood! What the hell is buttonwood? Buttonwood is a street off of 10th street, just south of spring garden. There, you will find this little hidden gem - Jose's. The sign says Jose's Groceries, Spanish & American Food. That's very weird because when you go inside, there's no groceries, and they serve Mexican food. And f'ing good mexican food to boot!

We started off with chips and salsa. The chips were super crunchy and not greasy at all. The pico was fresh. We also had some genuine mexican soda. Z had coke and I had a sidral mundet. Ah, how I love apple soda! It's one of my favorite things about mexico. I wish the american soda conglomerates would wake up and start marketing apple soda in the US. They have no idea how well it would do. Seriously, it would go gangbusters!

Z got the steak tostadas. They were supposed to come with some refried beans on it, but I guess they forgot. So he asked for a dish of beans and they happily obliged. My word, these beans were so good. Some of the best beans I've had in any mexican place in Philly. Yum. He also asked for some green salsa and they gave us some excellent and spicy salsa verde.

I went with a spicy chicken torta. A torta, for those of you not familiar, is a mexican sandwich. It can come with whatever filling, but comes in a rather large and flatter roll. There's also beans, veggies, cheese, and some sauce. I love these things. I was first introduced to tortas on my last trip to Mexico. I was in Mexico City for work, visiting Coca-Cola of all places, and on one of the days we went to have tortas for lunch. I remember this clearly as when we were walking to the torta place, from literally across the street, I got super tired. Whew! This was when the whole altitude thing hit me. I would walk for 10 yards and be winded. It was crazy. In any case, they love them some tortas over ther. My tortas in mexico were much more plain, with just meat and a sauce. They were also dirt cheap. I can certainly see why they love em over there. I'll take a torta over a hamburger or turkey sandwich any day!

Jose's

469 North 10th St

215-765-2369

HersheyPark Eats

Last week I went to Hersheypark. I don't think I'd been there for 20 years. I didn't remember very much at all. But I could tell it was just so different. It was so much bigger than I remember. There was no giant stadium. The grounds were not how I remembered. It was also not nearly as commercial!

The food choices at Hershey are really not all that great. But surprisingly, the prices are not that gougey. It's not as expensive as stadium food. It's certainly not regular prices, but much more reasonable than expected. We ended up at Nathan's for lunch. I had a corn dog. Damn, I love corn dogs! I don't care for hot dogs very much. I'll eat one once in awhile, but really, I'm not that big of a fan. I'm much more burger girl than a hot dog girl. But I'd pick a corn dog over a hamburger any day. Something about that sweet cornmeal batter. And the greasy hot dog on the inside. Plus, it's on a stick.

Later on, when I got hungry again after all that rollercoaster ridin', I got a hankerin' for a turkey leg! I knew they had them here. After looking for awhile, I finally found the bbq place that had turkey legs. Man, it was BIG. But actually, it looks big, but it's mostly bone. Ok, well not mostly bone, but the bone is really big and thick. So yes, there was a good amount of turkey meat, but not as much as you may have thought. It was really good though. I love turkey legs because it's dark meat, so it has more flavor and is not dry. I ate this thing up with some bbq sauce. Oh so good!

On the way home from Hersheypark, we stopped at the new Sonic that is off the Morgantown exit off of I-76. I got my banana cream pie shake fix, finally! See that, now a Sonic is only about 40 minutes away from me. Good thing I have EZ-Pass...

Crab Slaughter

So this was my third year going down to Dewey, and also the third year for me and the summer crab feast. Oh, it's a beautiful thing. Look at this dozen and a half beautiful maryland blue crab steamed up and doused with old bay. There are few things in this world more beautiful. They're squealing for me to eat them. Don't worry, I will!

Along with the crab, there were pounds of steamed shrimp, pounds of clams, and a crapload of buttered sweet corn. Oh lordy! So this corn was some of the best corn I've ever eaten in my life. It was super sweet, positively drenched in warm melted butter, and perfectly steamed. Seriously, I ate 3 ears. And I could have eaten more, but I ate the last one.

The crab were fairly small, as they were out of the jumbos, but they were quite meaty. And even though it seems like so much work for what is probably seen as little output, I still enjoy the whole process of cracking and picking through the crab. Sometimes, it tastes even better when you know you've worked so damn hard!

Ed's Chicken & Crabs

Route 1 & Swede St.

Dewey Beach, DE

302-227-9484

Ocean City Boardwalk

We drove down to Ocean City Maryland on Monday for the afternoon. I went there for senior week when I was in high school. Ah... I tear up just thinking about that week. Hahaha.... It was a beautifully warm and sunny day.


When on the boardwalk, what else can you do but get boardwalk fries? So I treated myself to some Thrasher's french fries. You know 'em. They're piping hot, you douse em with apple cider vinegar, and then you masticate. Mmmmm, vinegary burning potatoes. So delicious. I washed it all down with a traditional orange julius. Alright, so it's not beachy or anything to do with the shore, but heck, I still like me some orange julius.

Thrasher's French Fries

Boardwalk

Ocean City, MD

Dewey Beach greasy spoon

Dewey Beach is a fairly small beach town. It has a tiny "downtown" strip with not that many restaurants to choose from. And really, it's not like you have much choice, so they don't care if the food is any good.



We stopped by Sunnyside Up for brunch on Sunday morning. It's on the bay side, and we got a seat with a view. We could see the bay and the people renting waverunners. Our waitress was from eastern europe. You'll find lots of that down the shore during the summers. European teenagers come over to make money in resort towns. It's odd, but prevalent.


P ordered blueberry pancakes along with scrapple! Yeah! I don't eat scrapple, not because I think it's gross or anything. It's fine with me, but I think there are better things to eat. It's got a strange texture (crunchy on the outside from being pan fried and mushy on the inside) and it's like you know, grey. But really, I've eaten much grosser things.

Not only that, S ordered creamed chipped beef. I've never eaten this before so I had to try it. And I liked it! The gravy tasted like the gravy that they put on chicken fried steak, but a little more seafoody tasting. So more like a new england clam chowdery gravy. And then you had thinly sliced beef on top of toast. What's wrong with that? I had grilled cheese and Z ordered a BLT, but those are boring to write about. All in all, a decent, hearty, and cheap breakfast with a great view.

Highway food, literally...

While driving from Delmar to Dewey Beach, we drove through some fairly rural areas. See cows below for evidence.

We also drove past a BBQ cart on the side of the highway. It promised NC style BBQ. We had to check it out. Notice how happy that little pig and chicken look on the sign. They're not gonna look so happy in my stomach.

They had two cookers set up. Look at these fine specimens of bbq wizardry. They had plenty of pork ribs and chicken smoking up in these bad boys.

We got the rib plate. It came with about half a dozen good sized ribs. It was NC style, so it was a vinegary sauce. You could tell it'd been cooking for a long time. The meat came right off the bone and it had a nice caramelized crust. Also in the platter was some delicious sweet corn that came from a can (nothing wrong with that) and a roll that was surprisingly good. Perfect for soppin up some rib grease. Yum! All this for $8 and a priceless view of cars whizzing by.

Namaste, my spiritual trifecta

While down in Delaware, we needed dinner. We were in Delmar Delaware. Not exactly the pinnacle of haute cuisine. But luckily, it's just a hop skip and a jump from cosmopolitan downtown Salisbury Maryland. Ooh la la. P and S took us to Namaste, an Indian place in a strip mall, behind a strip mall. Seriously, it wasn't in just a regular strip mall. There were two strip malls, and you had to drive behind it to get to this hidden one. It is quite the international strip mall though. There's also a mexican ice cream place, a caribbean joint, and a brazilian restaurant. After Mantra, then Karma, and now Namaste, I've completed my restaurant spiritual circle.

Namaste seems to be a local gem. P and S love this place. You have to love a place with name the president paper placemats. I love these. The last and only time I saw these was at a different indian restaurant. They must have the monopoly on these. The menu was standard fare with your typical choices. The prices were quite reasonable compared to other places. You normally see $12-15 for entrees. Here, they were $9-12~ish.

Z had some mulligatawny soup. Yum. They used to serve this at my last job a lot in the cafeteria. I think I might have been the only person that ate it, but boy, did I love it. We also ordered a crap load of other dishes. We had some garlic naan and aloo paratha. Man, these were some of the best I've ever eaten anywhere, especially the garlic naan. And they were just super fresh and hot. Perfect! For entrees we got some chicken vindaloo, aloo gobi, mattar paneer, chicken tandoori, and malai kofta. The chicken tandoori was fantastic. It was cooked perfectly, wasn't dry at all, and had plenty of kick ass tandoori oven flavor. The malai kofta and the mattar paneer came in a similar sauce and it was a bit too sweet. I think they overdid it on the sugar a bit. It was still good, but too sweet. And I usually love sweet food, so surprised me as well. The vindaloo and aloo gobi were quite good as well.

Service wasn't too hot. There was only one waiter, and he seems a little frazzled. P and S said usually the service is excellent and that the owner comes by and says hi. On an interesting note, the waiter was chinese. But not chinese chinese, but indian chinese. Which is all starting to make sense since some of my indian friends have told me about fantastic indian chinese food that they have back in india, and that you can find "locally" in Edison NJ. Might be worth the trip!

Namaste Indian Cuisine

717 Roland St

Goliath Shopping Center

Salisbury, MD

410-912-1455

It's Sonically delicious

People. I love Sonic. I just do. A few years back, I had to go to Oklahoma City for work. There wasn't too much food to choose from (although we did find some fantastic Vietnamese in a sketchy area of town, go figure), but I picked up my love for local fast food magnate, Sonic. Sonic originates from Oklahoma City and I feel privileged that my love for Sonic started in its home town.

The sad part is, there are no Sonics around here. Or there weren't. Last year, they opened one near York, PA. And one in the middle of Delaware. And I've been to both, several times. My friends A and E even drove to Virginia Beach a few years ago just for their Sonic fix. That's dedication people! Luckily, they just opened a new one towards Reading and another one in Lancaster. That's only like an hour away. That's so doable!!!


I was in Delaware for a mini-break over the weekend, and it started with a trip to visit friends in lower Delaware. And when I say lower, I mean lower. P's house is in Delaware, but walk across the street, and you're in Maryland. On the way down, I of course stopped at the Sonic. Never mind the long lines or the wait. I had to have it. We were going to be getting a proper meal, so I didn't get any food. I just grabbed my giant 44 oz jug of strawberry limeade. Oh my. It has real strawberries in it, and my favorite kind of ice. They're the little pellets. Oh, I love this ice. I couldn't drink much of it, cuz let's face it, it's the size of my torso, but I enjoyed some more later that evening, and early the next day. There was still even some ice left. As far as food, I particularly enjoy their chili tater tots, their chicken wraps, and their burgers. The banana cream pie shake is to die for. I've eaten meals of just strawberry limeade and banana cream pie shake. Just try it. Oh Sonic. I wouldn't mind at all if you moved in around the corner from me. I would come and visit all the time. A girl can dream!

Quick Bites

Slurpee that came in the cup? Not too good. Collectible cup? Adorable.


Awhile back, I was at a BP station on Girard when T needed to get some cash. He came back with cash, and some of these delightful Howard's Honey Plantain chips. I don't know where else you can get these. I ventured back there the other week just to pick these up. They're still good.

A few weekends ago, we stopped by Reading Terminal Market to grab a quick lunch. Z got some indian food at Nanee's Kitchen. It wasn't bad. I got a crepe at Profi's Creperie. I'd totally been hankering for some crepes. I got a banana honey crepe. I think I expected it to be light on the honey. Perhaps drizzled in honey. But it was drowned in it. A little too much honey there profi's! Give those bees a break. Otherwise, it was filled to the brim with bananas and quite good, if it wasn't for that weird feeling you get in the back of your throat when you're dealing with too much honey. And a quick shout out to the milkshakes and smoothies made by Freal that you can get at Wawa. So they only have limited flavors, who cares? They're cheap and they're good. And you get to mix it on your own, so you feel part of the experience.

New Local Thai

Although I live in the burbs, I am lucky enough to live nearish the main line. I also live quite close to several downtowns (albeit small), including Ardmore and Havertown. Of course, these downtowns are about 1-2 blocks long! In downtown Havertown, as far as food goes, we have a Wawa, Oakmont Pub (which I love), and a brand new thai restaurant, Sukho Thai. It used to be Pappa Lindy's, which was a very short-lived breakfast place, and only recently popped up as a thai restaurant. Look how cool Havertown is now, we have a thai place!

M got the pad thai. I've never ordered pad thai in my life. I'm not sure why. Everybody loves it. I've just never been inspired to order it. M thought it was a little too sweet. But I thought pad thai is supposed to be sweet? I tasted and quite liked it. I'll probably not order it, but I still liked it. It was fresh and light.

I went with the spicy noodles with chicken. That's what they called it, but in other restaurants, it's usually called drunken noodles. It's a wide flat rice noodle with a spicy sauce. I got mine with shrimp. Yum. It was indeed spicy and noodle-rrific. The place is tiny, yet adorable. And for a thursday night in Havertown, it was quite full! There weren't very many empty tables at all. The service was good, although the waitress didn't know how to describe what massaman curry tasted like. The food came out super fast (almost too fast) and was pretty damn tasty. The menu is fairly standard for a thai place and the prices are on par with most. It seems pretty popular, so I hope it stays successful!

Karma Karma Karma Chameleon

On Friday the 13th, we tested our luck and dined at Karma, an Indian restaurant in old City. It's a fairly classy joint. Fancy decorations, cloth napkins, extensive wine menu. They have a lunch buffet that I hear is fabulous, for dinner, no such buffet.

I love indian food. As shocking as it may be, for someone who just loves food and eats an awful lot, I never had it until about 8 years ago. At the time, I worked with an adorable little old indian man. I swear to you the guy was 72. Seriously. And on my last day there, he took me to eat indian food for the first time. I loved it, and I was hooked forever.

I live near one of the "best" indian restaurants in the Philadelphia area. I won't name it because I had the absolute worst customer service experience I've ever had in my entire life there. And I won't ever go back there. Not ever. I pass it twice a day, on my way to and back from work. I crave their food. But man, they ticked me off so much, and my friends so much, that I can't ever go back there again. SIGH.



In any case, I was definitely excited about eating indian food. I usually always get chicken tikka masala. Not very adventurous, I know, but hey, I love it. I even "make" it at home with the stuff I buy in a jar. C was getting it, so I decided to mix it up by getting butter chicken. Haha. It's pretty much the same, except here, the butter chicken had pieces of chicken, and the chicken tikka masala had big cubes of chicken. They were both great. We also got naan, of course. I have eaten it as a meal before I love this stuff so much. We had garlic naan and also kandhari naan, which was filled with pistachios, raisins, and almonds. Everybody loved that one, I didn't try it.



Some of the veggie dishes that were ordered included chana peshwari (chickpeas), saag paneer (cheese cubes), mattar paneer (cheese cubes), veggie biryani (rice). I'm certainly not a vegetarian, and would rarely order a veggie dish. However, all these were incredible. I especially loved the mattar paneer. It was just friggin good.

There were some other dishes ordered, but I have no idea what they were. The best one to show is this green chicken dish. I haven't a clue as to what it is. It's chicken, that I know. It's freakishly bright green, that I also know. How they got it this color, I have no idea. It certainly is fun to look at. I tasted it and liked it, but I can't describe it. Is green a flavor? In all, this was some of the best indian food I've ever had. I highly recommend it! Service is pretty good and prices are reasonable.

After dinner, we walked on over to Franklin Fountain. This place is as cute as can be. It's run by two brothers from Media and they serve old fashioned ice cream and fountain drinks. It's a beautifully decorated places with lots of old-timey everything.

The ice cream boys wear cute little aprons and little hats. They write down the orders on little slips of paper. And they hand make everything, including the delicious ice cream. I had a ladies choice ice cream soda. It was raspberry soda with peach ice cream and whipped cream. It was bright pink and it was lovely. It's the perfect ending on a warm summer evening. Good friends, good food, good ice cream.

Repeat after me... Mantra...

A couple saturdays ago, I went to Mantra for the second time. The first time I ever went there, we ended up there quite by accident. It was probably a year ago or more. We were in the area and looking for somewhere to eat, and it caught our eye. It was brand new. We had a lovely meal that night. It was so new they didn't even have their liquor license yet and we got free wine. Whoohoo! We had an even better meal this time around.


After becoming unemployed oh so suddenly, Z had to find a new gig. He did. So he wanted to celebrate. He suggested Tantra. I said, do you mean Mantra? Yes, that was it. It was such a random pick, but all the stars aligned that evening. It was as if we were supposed to go there! Mantra bills themself as an Asian Soulfood restaurant. I get the asian part just fine, but I haven't noticed the soul part just yet. It's fairly small, but there are two floors of seating, along with a few tables outside. There's bars on both floors. There are mostly tables, but we got seated in one of the two booths. We started with a few drinks, I had the asian red head. Apparently, with this drink name, they've won some kind of best drink name award. Z had some red wine, I forget what. Probably shiraz or cab or something. I enjoyed my drinky poo very much!




For appetizers, we had the Long Life Green salad the Baby Bombay Burgers. The burger is actually an entree, but for whatever reason, I thought it would be small (probably due to the "baby" in the name and the cheap price) but it was actually a proper entree. Oops. The burgers were delish and had roti as the bun. It also came with seasoned sweet potato fries, which rocked. The bulldog ketchup it came with was an excellent complement. After I ate one of the burgers, I was already pretty full! The salad was good too.



Z ordered the Wasabi Crusted Filet Mignon as an entree. As you can see, it was a big hunk of filet with a wasabi based crust! It came sitting on top a pile of mashed potatoes with a side of chinese broccoli. I'm not much of a steak eater, so I would rarely ever order just a piece of meat. I tasted it though and it was nice and tender. The crust wasn't too spicy. The mashed potatoes were great.


As for me, they have seafood specials throughout the summer. For july, the seafood of choice is crabs and they had three offerings. I went with the softshell crab. The crabs came drizzled with a sweet and spicy sauce on top of a bed of lettuce and crunchy noodles. I enjoyed the crabs, but I was a bit disappointed that this dish didn't come with any real sides. I mean I know it came on top of a huge pile of edible stuff, but it really wasn't worth eating. It was much more of a giant garnish, and not so much actual sides. For $25, I should have had proper sides!

During dinner, we saw Al Paris, who runs the place. He's a restaurateur and artist and crafter. He built the restaurant with his own hands, including the tables and artwork. Z said hello to him, and a few moments later, the general manager, Chris, brought us a round of drinks on Al. Thanks Al! Al then came by and started gabbing with us. I like it when managers come by once in awhile and ask how things are, but this was the first time an owner came by, sat down, and chatted with us. It was great. Before we left, he gave us a big hug. :-) Then he told us to come by in an hour and it would really be bumping.

After an amusing trip to Drinkers Pub (mostly because I am old enough to be moms of the kids that drink there), we did go back to Mantra. When we went back, there was a DJ and they were playing this crazy japanese martial arts movie. It was getting more and more packed as suddenly, these giant groups of girls came in. Attention single male blog readers, Mantra on saturday nights. Be there! We then talked to Chris, the GM, for awhile. It was great because we found out just how dedicated they were to please customers at Mantra. They truly care about giving us the best experience and best meal we could have. I'm sure all restaurants want to do that, but it's rare that you find it to be true, direct from the horses' mouths. Then Z bought a round of shots and had a shot with Al and the DJ. It was hilarious. I can't recommend this place enough. Not only is the food good, the people who run the place give a damn! How refreshing!

Suburban Thai

Last Friday, I wanted to go to one of my favorite suburban thai restaurants for lunch. This would be Sabai Thai in Newtown Square, and of course, it was no more! I am pretty sure it is closed for good. Sadness. It had the best lunch specials. So we headed round the corner to Heng's Thai and Sushi. This is a new restaurant in a new shopping center. We thought why not.


It's a swanky place with a modern style. They serve thai food and sushi only, not japanese food, just sushi. They had some lunch specials that were thai only. My bro and I both got some lunch specials. Bro got the egg roll and also a salad. I had the tom yum soup and the salad. The soup was pretty good. The salad was even better. It is a typical salad you would get at a sushi restaurant, with the fresh ginger dressing. This is some of the best ginger dressing I've ever had.


W got a coconut soup. It sorta looked like shrimp in milk. She liked it though. She also ended up getting a salad as her entree. It was a cabbage salad. It could come with either cabbage or papaya, or a combination. She actually asked for a combination, but only got cabbage. It had a sweet and sour type dressing on it. It was pretty good.


Bro got the green curry chicken fried rice dish. They basically took some green curry chicken and mixed it up with a bunch of rice. Now mind you, this had coconut milk in it as most thai curries do, but I still liked it. I wouldn't order it on my own, but I did enjoy it. It was very flavorful and the rice and veggies were well cooked.


I got the cabbage and tofu dish. It came with a pretty benign brown sauce and some brown rice. I guess in retrospect, it was a little too healthy for me. I liked it, but it wasn't very exciting. All in all, the experience was fine. The service was good. I wish they would have had more selections in the lunch specials. What amused me the most is that their plates are personalized and they all say "Heng's" on them. I guess I can't be lifting any dishes from this joint...


Heng's Thai
1156 Baltimore Pike
Springfield, PA
484-625-7777